Girls' Soccer POY: Delsea's Tori Miller

Following the Delsea Regional High School girls' soccer team's 2-1, Senior Night victory over Cumberland on Oct. 28, Tori Miller couldn't stop fixating on the John A. Oberg Field scoreboard.

The Crusader senior wasn't stuck on the result though. It was the number 99.

When Miller first stepped onto the field that night, 97 was lit up on the board. At first she thought it was the senior class' year of birth, considering it was Senior Night. Then a friend told Miller it was her career goal tally.

She scored twice that game to up the total, but not the milestone marker she was hoping for.

"(The stands) were packed," Miller said. "It would've been so cool to get it that night with everyone there."

After failing to score in Delsea's next game at Woodstown, she feared she missed her opportunity to hit No. 100 with only a playoff showdown against Cherry Hill East left on the schedule.

And that's what Miller did. She scored two goals in the game as the Crusaders picked up their first playoff victory in more than five years. She scored four more times in Delsea's next postseason game, a 6-4 loss to Central, upping her season total to 43 and career mark to 105. Her stellar year garnered Miller her second straight Daily Journal Player of the Year honors.

"I was excited to get it on that playoff game because it meant a lot more," Miller said. "Get our first playoff (win) and to get the 100th goal, there was a lot more to celebrate about."

The 100th goal was the 38th of her season, a number she couldn't fathom reaching in previous years.

"My dad (Dave) and me follow the state rankings (of goal scorers), and you'll see girls with like 40 and 35, and I'm like, 'How does that happen?'" said Miller, whose 43 goals tied for the fifth most in the state. "But then to get 43 this year, I didn't think I'd finish with that."

Especially considering she tore her left anterior cruciate ligament in October 2013.

"It's a great season for anybody," Russo said. "For somebody coming off an ACL, it just makes that much more special. It's a good lesson for a lot of girls because, unfortunately, a lot of girls tear their ACLs, and no matter how much work and conditioning, sometimes it just happens, and for somebody to come back and be a role model and have such a great year is uplifting to anybody else."

However, Miller wasn't sure her hard work was going to pay off. Even though she scored twice in her team's season opener, a 2-1 overtime triumph over Deptford, she still didn't feel like herself, she said.

Rather, it was the Crusaders' third game of the season that proved to her she was back.

Miller tallied a hat trick in a 3-1 victory over Vineland on Sept. 18. It wasn't that she scored three goals that gave her confidence though, it was who Miller scored them against.

"I've never scored on (Vineland goalie) Shelby Miller before," Miller said. "In my eyes, I thought I would never score on her. My mom (Dawn) the night before (the game) was (joking), like, 'Are you ready to get shut out tomorrow?' because I've played on club with Shelby and even in practice I could not score on her. It was always a competition between us, but to score three against her, I think that really was like where I knew this was going to be our year and a good year for my knee."

She proved that game in and game out. Miller scored in 18 of Delsea's 22 contests, tallying at least two goals in 15 games, including six three-goal performances and two four-goal outings. That despite having to wear a bulky knee brace on her left knee.

"(The brace) became a part of the uniform," Miller said. "I really didn't notice. If it wasn't so much money, I'd buy one for (my right) knee."

Miller's teammates also made life easy on the pitch.

"Kailey (Russo), Dasia (Busch) and Jess (Monteleone), they'd just put beautiful balls to me," Miller said. "Some of them were just (perfect). If you miss this, you're getting benched. It was so nice. If they weren't in the midfield, it would've been really hard."

She'll have some pretty good teammates with her next year when she attends Rowan University, including Money, who Miller cited as the deciding factor in her choosing the Profs.

"I want to play all four years," Miller said.

If they're anything like her career at Delsea, she'll go down as one of the best players Rowan has ever had.